Andrew Schneider writes about public health and worker safety issues. His stories run the gamut from investigations of corporate and government cover-ups of toxic perils, to stories about gutsy federal , medical and industry workers doing what's right, to what makes the shrimp in your refrigerator glow at night and why white truffles might be worth $4,000 a pound.

Food – taste or weight

I actually had the painful pleasure of watching two very large guys each try to eat a 72-ounce steak at the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. The $72 meal was free IF you could consume the 4.5-pounds of sirloin, a baked potato, a salad, a dinner roll, and a shrimp cocktail in 60 minutes or less.

The eatery says that 42,000 people have tried to win and about 7,000 have succeeded. including an 11-year-old boy and a 69-year-old grandmother.

I was reminded of this culinary experience when a reader sent me a story by Greg Beato in Reason magazine which does a great job of giving us a tour of the efforts being made by McDonald’s, Wendy’s and the other fast food giants to see how much beef, bacon and cheese they can cram between bread and then seduce us not only to buy, but to eat.

How much is too much?

Here’s a bit of Beato’s story: “Imagine if McDonald’s picked up your bill any time you managed to eat 10 Big Macs in an hour or less. What if Wendy’s replaced its wimpy Baconator with an unstoppable meat-based assassin that could truly make your aorta explode–say, 20 strips of bacon instead of six, enough cheese slices to roof a house, and instead of two measly half-pound patties that look as emaciated as the Olsen twins, five pounds of the finest ground beef, with five pounds of fries on the side? Morgan Spurlock’s liver would seek immediate long-term asylum at the nearest vegan co-op.”